Parents of murdered child sue child-sex advocates

(CNN) -- A grieving Massachusetts couple is at the center of a court battle over free speech rights.

Robert and Barbara Curley have filed a $200 million wrongful death lawsuit against the North American Man Boy Love Association -- an organization that defends what it calls 'intergenerational sex'. Critics call them pedophiles.

The Curleys' lawsuit claims that NAMBLA and seven of the group's leaders encouraged the "illegal rape of young male children," which ultimately led to the 1997 murder of their 10-year-old son Jeffrey Curley.

On its Web site, NAMBLA says it is a political organization that favors repeal of age-of-consent laws, but opposes any form of sexual coercion.

NAMBLA did not return phone calls from CNN seeking comment on the lawsuit. The American Civil Liberties Union is defending NAMBLA in the name of free speech.

"There is room in this country for people who believe man-boy love is okay. There is room for people who believe, who say it, but not who do it," ACLU attorney Harvey Silvergate said.

The Curleys' attorney, Lawrence Frisoli, disagrees.

"When it comes to the commission of a crime, which is the rape of children in this America, free speech doesn't protect you," Frisoli said.

Salvatore Sicari and Charles Jaynes are serving life sentences for kidnapping and killing Jeffrey. Massachustetts has no death penalty.

The men who wanted sex from Jeffrey promised him a new bicycle to replace one he had lost. Jeffrey's mother, Barbara Curley, had told him to wait until Christmas.

"I just wanted him to learn some responsibility. And it's hard to live with that today. I think if I had to live with that today. I think if I had just bought him the other bike, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Maybe they would have moved on to somebody else," she said.

Sicari was a neighbor who lived only a block away from the Curleys. Sicari's friend Jaynes was a pedophile who belonged to NAMBLA.

David Yannetti, who prosecuted the case, said Jeffrey thought the men were his friends, when in fact, they were targeting him for sex.

"That was the reason for the whole seduction. That was the reason for the lure of the bicycle, and I think the evidence points to the fact that when Jeffrey Curley found out what these men were after, he said no, and he struggled, and that's why they killed him," Yannetti said.

Police found publications from NAMBLA in Jaynes' car, where Jeffrey was killed, and a diary in Jaynes' apartment where he had written about seducing young boys and told how NAMBLA changed his life:

"This was a turning point in discovery of myself.... NAMBLA's Bulletin helped me to become aware of my own sexuality and acceptance of it," Jaynes wrote.

"As a result of reading a NAMBLA bulletin, he came to cope with his feelings and his desires and then he came to realize it's OK to rape little boys and that's what he went and did," Frisoli claims.